Actually, the medical name is Feline Hyperesthesia or FHS. Other common medical terms include: rolling skin disease, neurodermatitis, neuritis, psychomotor epilepsy, and pruritic dermatitis
Never heard of it? You're not alone! I had absolutely no idea such a condition existed in cats. It is suppose to be a very 'rare' condition in cats, yet since Mina has developed this and I've been researching and talking to other cat parents, it seems to be much more common. In fact, the owner of our local pet supply store has TWO cats with the condition and tells me that she runs into it a lot with new clients every day. So, I thought I would share what's been going on with Mina.
I haven't had Mina officially diagnosed yet. It will likely take a small fortune to do that as you'll see in the 'diagnosis' section of my post. However, we are quite certain - 99.9%
In retrospect, I now see that Mina probably had FHS all along. It explains sooooo much. However, not to this degree. We just thought she was a little more moody than the average cat - 'unique'. So we had to learn to read the signs to avoid injuries (which there were many in those early months). Other than her attacks and spitting, she was very social and loving - yet she could change in a split second! Her tail would swish back and forth quickly, her ears would go back and her pupils would enlarge to pure blackness - petting time was over! There were some other strange behaviors that alarmed us like her seemingly increased paranoia with rugs, boxes, open doors. However, not too alarming considering other stories I've heard about cats with similar behaviors.
I even theorized that perhaps being found as a starving kitten, she had developed some sort of memory to that hunger feeling and unknowingly acted this out aggressively whenever she was hungry (as she has quite an appetite).
This all changed a few weeks ago when Mina had a little catnip accident. Being the playful cat that she is, she had cornered her prey (catnip pickle) on the stairs when suddenly she had a paranoid moment from an out of place dish towel on the stairs. She sprang up in the air and landed on her side sending her in a dizzying frenzy around the living room and every paranoid piece of furniture that jumped out at her.
She was obviously in terrified distress. Spitting and hissing, crouching and scurrying from place to place with her tail swishing wildly. She was clearly 'not there' as her black eyes were now wide-eyed and darting all around. Another strange aspect to this was her licking and rolling of the skin on her back. As an observer, it resembled a cat with fleas - but she didn't have fleas. Our attempts to comfort her and investigate what was going on with her body only made things worse so we gave it a little while to see if it calmed down. It did slightly, but not thoroughly.
I did a little research thinking that she had injured her back and ran across a good bit of information regarding FHS. And then I went on youtube to see what FHS looked like in a cat having an episode. It was like the lights went on - all the behavior from her kitten months through to the present were clearly described in perfect succession.
Veterinarians aren't sure what causes FHS. Cats seem to have very delicate nervous systems so some preliminary guesses have been thrown out there:
In other words, cats can exhibit this behavior from just about anything. In some case, the condition can get better, in others it can be limited and ongoing and develop into more severe attacks.
This is a process of elimination and observation and can take a considerable amount of time and money to diagnose. This would include bloodwork, radiographs or ultrasound, trying various therapies and medications and when all other possibilities have been ruled out, a diagnosis of FHS is given.
In Mina's case, she seemed to get worse with her little catnip accident so we will be ruling out an injury as the underlying cause. For now, we are trying to see if this settles down on its own and treating her as if she has FHS.
I happen to adore Dr. Becker and find her broad scope of knowledge between natural and mainstream medicine very useful. She explains this condition very thoroughly as well as what is involved in diagnosis.
And in this video, you can see exactly what this condition looks like in a cat. This is 'exactly' what Mina experiences. It's an obvious abnormal behavior.
I just recently adjusted Mina's diet completely over to an anti-inflammatory one without chicken or fish. We had a lapse one week where chicken was accidentally given to her and she had at least 4 severe attacks that day when she had been down to one or two. So, I really do think that there is a correlation to diet improving the inflammation of either nervous system or back injury.
Now that she is exclusively on the anti-inflammatory diet she has been doing much, much better only having one episode this morning (mornings and late evenings seem to be the worse times).
I also started her on hemp oil this week and I have to say, it really does seem to be helping her a great deal - In more ways than one. She is much more relaxed than she has ever been, doesn't seem to shift moods so much, more affectionate (yesterday she napped in my arms for an hour which is unheard of and it was heaven!). I haven't noticed as much of the paranoid episodes either. She just seems to be so much more relaxed and balanced.
Unraveling the mystery of Mina's behavior to FHS has been monumental in understanding and helping her be more comfortable. Apparently just the act of loving on her or feeding her was stimulating the nervous system enough to provoke a reaction. Makes so much sense now!
Mina this morning: We had a little setback last night. I did notice her pupils were fully dilated but I ignored it. She was reaching up for me to pick her up and I did proceeding to allow a hug from her. Her purring took me off guard and as I looked into her eyes and started talking to her, she attacked me by biting my nose and hissing. Umph :( As with last night, her pupils are fully dilated this morning so I'm just going to gauge her moods by this and leave her alone today no matter how much she purrs (who am I kidding - this is hard!). She seems to enjoy the new tulips that bloomed the other day and spends a good amount of her day sitting beside them. Such a mystery you are Mina.
If anyone else has a cat with this condition, I would love to hear from you in the comments.
If you think your cat might have this condition, I hope that you found it helpful.
